1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to safety gates, and more particularly to mezzanine-type gates at guardrails.
2. Prior Art
Multiple levels and storage or manufacturing facilities often have intermediate or mezzanine floors which provide passageways for goods going to other levels. Railings and chains typically provide the safety on the periphery of these areas.
An early attempt at a gate or entrance arrangement is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,041,646 to Mittag. With these arrangement, one or two gates may be pivoted about a pair of lower pivot points to provide an opening, or to deny access to an entryway. A further gate for mezzanines is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,538,379 to Vargo. With this gate, a pair of parallel rails pivoted about a pair of opposed axes have a gate at one end thereof. The rails and gate define a generally rectangular area. When the gate is closed the gate portion is at one side of the frame assembly. When it is desired to provide access to that gate area the entire assembly is pivoted about those axes, so that that one gate is now pivoted to the opposite side 180 degrees from its original position. When this particular side frame assembly is in its vertical orientation, there is in fact no gate or barrier to prevent access through or over the mezzanine floor.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,241,789 to Vacelet shows an apparatus for protecting an elevator shaft opening. The opening at the shaft door comprises a railing which is secured to the door by two hinged parallelogram linkages. The protective railing is movable between two horizontally spaced apart positions. The railing is extendable to adopt or adapt to different opening widths. The gates of the prior art, however, fail to adequately provide a loading space which is sealed off at least at one end while the other end is opened under all circumstances. With this prior art the gate could be opened so that an individual could pass, run or fall through both the load area as well as through the side of the mezzanine.
Therefore, gate arrangements for mezzanine platforms known to date, however, do not offer satisfactory protection to workers on that mezzanine floor or to those below that floor.
It is an object of the present invention to overcome the disadvantages of the prior art.
It is yet a further embodiment of the present invention, to provide a mezzanine gate assembly, which has a pair of barriers, one of which is always down when the other is up.
It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide a failsafe invention so that a barrier is always blocking the passageway from a mezzanine floor.